Huskies Seeking Revenge vs. Cougars
The Houston Cougars will host the Connecticut Huskies on Sunday afternoon and we are looking for the best NCAA basketball pick to add to our card. The opening tip at Hofheinz Pavilion is slated for 2:00 PM ET, and it will be televised by the CBS Sports Network. Current (9:15 AM ET) NCAA basketball odds board at Heritage indicates that Connecticut is a 1.0 point favorite, and the posted total is 141.5. This will be the first meeting of the season between these AAC teams. They met once a season ago, Houston came away with a 70-68 home win, and the contest easily went over the total of 122.5.

On the Rebound
Connecticut is coming off a 60-51 loss at Tulsa on Thursday night. They held an 8 point lead with less than seven minutes to go in the game, and then went ice cold offensively down the final stretch. The Huskies have now lost two of their previous three games, and have shot an awful 34.9% from the field during that span. On a positive note, they held opponents to a combined 37.2% shooting from the field in those three contests.

Strong Home Court
Houston has gone a perfect 10-0 at home this season. However, only five of those contests were lined games, lending itself to a soft schedule thus far. The good news is, they covered all five games where there was a line installed. Their most notable win this season came at home against unranked LSU. It’s also worth noting, the Cougars won at Temple in a 77-50 blowout just 15 days ago. That was the same Temple team that won at Connecticut just three days later. The Cougars have been stout defensively over their previous five contests, holding opponents to 56.2 points per game, 36.0% shooting from the floor, and limited them to converting on only 24.5% of its three point attempts.

Final Thoughts & Pick
Both of these teams offensive production has slowed dramatically in recent games compared to their season averages. However, each team has continued to perform at a high level on the defensive side of the floor. I look for this to be a low scoring contest, and one of my college basketball picks on Sunday will reflect that sentiment.